Giving Old Jeans New Life

My most recent project was a week long and based on upcycling old denim. Last Monday we were given the brief and some scraps of denim to go along with any we had sourced ourselves. The task was to use this denim to create something new with it, for example an idea for a product.

I did some initial design ideas in my sketchbook after looking at inspiration on Pinterest. I liked the idea of making something for an interior like a wall hanging. When drawing out shapes inspired by the pattern on one of the jeans pockets, I came up with the idea of creating bunting. I decided to design bunting in the shape of a jeans pocket, and drew out a few different ideas of how I could embellish and decorate them.

I created two bunting samples with different techniques to see what would work best. One was chevron shape applique in different shades of blue from my different denim scraps, with lots of little stitches in lines on top. I really like the effect of all the stitches to add detail to the design. On the other side I did simple stitches in a bright pink colour to contrast the dark blue denim I used.

For the other sample I used two pieces of denim for the front and added lots of stitching in blues, purples and greys to create a shape moving up the piece. This took a while but I really like the effect as it is quite unique. On the back I did some applique triangle shapes.

Once all the pieces were sewn together I felt like something was needed for the end points of the bunting, so I added little blue felted pom poms to finish them off!